Salad of Raw Red Thistle and Oysters

Ensalada de Cardo Rojo Crudo con Ostras
Túbal
Chef: Nicolás Ramírez
Country: Spain
City: 31300 Tafalla (Navarra)
Address: Plaza de Navarra, 4
(+34) 948700852

This restaurant represents the evolution of popular cuisine in Navarra. A statement that is at its height regarding the elements the local population is the proudest of: vegetables. The menu offers infinite recipes with diversified treatments of every main ingredient. Boiled, fried, sautéed… and raw artichokes served with a wide variety of accompaniments from here and there. As well as winter thistle. This is the most clairvoyant indigenous salad which “dares” to integrate distinguished vegetables from the land: red thistle, artichokes, green beans or mange-tout, chicory, watercress, red chard and arugula, served raw or stripped, sliced and in leaves, seasoned with a delicate and tempered vinaigrette and oyster juice. The whole is topped by a huge oyster that gives oceanity and exquisiteness to the liveliness of the countryside. Nature and naturality in all their splendour.



The Recipe



Ingredients (4 servings)

  • 4 oysters
  • red thistle
  • 2 artichokes “Blancas de Tudela”
  • 1 chicory
  • green beans
  • 4 purple potatoes
  • watercress
  • red chard
  • extra virgin arbequina olive oil
  • apple vinegar
  • chopped spring onion
  • chervil
  • Maldon salt

Method

 

Open the oysters, remove the shells and set aside with their water.

RED THISTLE. Choose the most tender and youngest ribs, clean and cut them both lengthwise and transversally. Clean and put in water with ice so that the thistle curls and absorbs the oil better.

ARTICHOKES. Peel, slice and cover with extra virgin olive oil and some drops of lemon.

POTATOES. Cut and cook into salted water until tender. Strain and set aside.

GREEN BEANS. Cut in thin strips, cook in water with bicarbonate and salt and cut the cooking with water and ice.

CHICORY. Choose the most tender ribs and clean.

Assembly

 

Mix all the ingredients except the oysters in a bowl. Season with the extra virgin olive oil, the vinegar and the salt. Place the vegetables onto the plate in an aesthetic way, add some Maldon salt crystals and top with the oyster. Make a cream with the oyster juice and the extra virgin olive oil, and add into the salad. Finish with the chopped young onion and the chervil.

Tags: